iPhone 5 prototype lost? The rumors fly once again

You'd think that Apple employees would start attaching their iPhone prototypes to their person with bungees or something. Last year, an engineer lost an iPhone 4 prototype before its release in a beer garden in California -- it was picked up by a civilian and sold to a gadget blog for $5,000 in cash.

In a strange repeat of the incident, CNET
now reports that an employee lost an unreleased iPhone 5 at a tequila lounge in San Francisco. The finder of this one, apparently, sold it for only $200 on Craigslist -- less than a current iPhone 4 sells for. Its current whereabouts are unknown.

CNET reports that the SFPD questioned a man in his twenties about the phone and searched his two-floor single-family home. SFPD spokesman Albie Esparza denies that they helped Apple with any such sweep of a house, looking for a missing phone.

Our biggest question remains: Why are the employees allowed to take these phones out drinking? Are they testing the gadget's ability to take badly-framed kissy-face peace-sign photos?